Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a previous Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, I was a strong defender of the single desk. That support was contingent on ensuring the AWB acted with integrity. Like other Labor ministers for primary industry, I was an activist minister who ensured oversight of the operations of the AWB. I saw it as part of my job. I might say that we also oversaw the deregulation of the wheat market for domestic purposes, something that has seen a significant diversification of our crops.

Sadly, this government and its ministers have shown no such probity, and the damning conclusions of the Cole inquiry demonstrate how mired in scandal we have become as a consequence. This government’s lack of probity, its negligence and its maladministration have killed the single desk arrangements as we have known them.

The AWB scandal of course has many other ramifications. The wheat for weapons bribes that the AWB paid—$300 million in total—have not only cost the taxpayer; they have cost wheat growers their trade with Iraq, about $500 million per year, and the value of AWB shareholdings has halved. Yet the government claims it has been cleared. How can anyone clear that mammoth negligence and maladministration?

It is very interesting that the then minister for agriculture, Mr Truss, the person responsible for the Wheat Export Authority, allowed this incompetent body to not only be underresourced but be effectively a watchdog without any teeth. Some watchdog! It did not even bark while these scandals were happening. And it is not that they were not warned. Labor, through its then agriculture spokesman, Senator Kerry O’Brien, drew attention to the Wheat Export Authority’s deficiencies three years ago. In fact, the Wheat Export Authority had written to Mr Truss, the then minister, in 2000 advising him of its limited powers. Yet the government failed to act. But Minister Truss’s position is even worse, because in relation to commissions he had this to say back in March this year:

But even if the Australian Wheat Board was paying commissions for wheat sales in Iraq, that would not cause any great worry. ... if ever there were any kickbacks to the Iraqi grain, then I guess they would end up with the government. So that is not terribly unusual.

This is a government that was effectively condoning the activities and not supervising. It is outrageous, it is a dereliction of duty and the government is to be condemned. This did not happen on our watch, because we as ministers took our offices seriously.

Another National Party minister, now its leader, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Vaile, set up the flawed structure in 1998 which led to this scandal. They privatised the statutory authority but then gave no oversight to it. It was a flawed privatisation which lacked both good governance and scrutiny. Now what do we have, looking at the unedifying debate last night between the member for O’Connor and Senator Joyce? Well may members of the other side laugh. This is a disgrace, but I am sure there is more to come. This is a government that stands condemned for its negligence. It has cost the nation and it has cost the wheat growers. The government needs to come up with a solution to protect the interests of wheat growers going into the future. It has failed them miserably to date. The National Party has let them down and the Liberal Party has no capacity to deal with its partners in this complicit fraud on the nation.